Friday, November 7, 2008

Obama won. The tendency, of course, was for the media to focus on his acceptance speech. Some people at the office watched him on CNN and were so wowed by the new President-elect. Within the same day, I even received a transcript of his speech. Even if it was against my nature to shun long non-work-related emails, I read it.

I thought Obama's speechwriter was really, really very good. Let's get real. It wasn't the half-black guy but the writer! Yes, Obama has charisma. His delivery, however, needed a few improvements. For one, he sounded monotonous and kept on bombarding and bombarding. He needs to develop on his inflection more, I tell you. But then, who am I? He's the new President of the US of A! Screw me!

Now let's look at the other side - poor ol' man John McCain. He had to deliver a speech that was a lot more difficult to deliver than Obama's. Accepting defeat, that's hard. I watched him on TV and found it classy and gracious of the old man.

I have never, ever in my entire life dress up for Halloween. And after 31 freakin' years, I finally did - as The Joker! To top it off, I did it at the office!

Yes, I so loved the late Heath Ledger's character in The Dark Knight that even after months following the movie's release, I was still so obsessed about the character that I had the balls to dress up as him. At the office.

How did I fare? Strictly speaking, it wasn't really close to the original - the hair, the makeup, the scars, etc. But for the sake of fun, it was okay. In fact, it was a blast. Kids were scared of me (even some adults), everyone wanted to have their photo with me taken... I mean, common, that was Hollywood and this was just me and MBK. Why so serious?

Monday, October 27, 2008

Yes, I began my special day with shouting. But that was more than a month ago already. Just haven't blogged for quite a while. Been busy moving to our new apartment, that's why. Now back to my birthday.

I wasn't really in the best of moods that particular September morning. I was still sleepy and running late at the same time. Just as I finished feeding Kwittie Boy (our cat), I heard some thumping outside. I couldn't have been mistaken: it was the sound of someone pounding on the concrete sidewalk.

More than a month earlier, the sidewalk across our apartment was demolished to give way supposedly to a better drainage system. Yes, it was already about a month then and there was still no end to it. That's how it is with most, if not all, government projects. They weren't even done with that side yet when they began demolishing our side of the road. And this is what it looked like:

I talked to one of the workers to spare that small portion in front of our gate until after we move out, as we were scheduled to in about a week's time. He agreed, and I no longer had to put up this ugly makeshift sign:

But then, the pounding. Already in a bad mood, I asked why when I told them not to until we move out, which was just two days away. They had to, the worker said. I said I already asked them not to a week earlier. Besides, they could just skip that part in the meantime and move on.

Friday, September 12, 2008

As I've previously written, MBK has been surprising me with stuff when it's not yet my birthday. Apart from the "Gayfit" tank tops, she bought me a vintage wrist watch from eBay. It's a Bulova automatic. She was supposed to give it to me on my birthday but the package came much earlier than expected and she just couldn't contain her excitement. So she handed it to me.

I've had my Nokia N70 for more than two years now. I was basically happy with it (otherwise, it wouldn't have lasted that long). Until recently.

For the past few weeks I've had to deal with its failing software manifesting itself in different ways. One, I open a text message to which I have to reply. Surprise, surprise! This stupid message appears on the screen:

This is the most frequent of its problems. The first time it happened I immediately checked my phone memory. There was still about 8MB of free space. Maybe it's the memory card, I thought (although of course it's not!), and there was still some 30MB. Besides, how do I "close some applications and try again?" What the hell does it think it is, Windows? With Nokia I can only open one application at a time. Is my phone's software confused or what? Ironically, like Windows, everything's fine after you restart.

Two, I receive a text message and I can't open it at all. The same irritating message appears. With teeth grinding, I restart my phone.

Three, I can't receive any SMS. Of course you won't notice this until someone calls you up, pissed at why you don't return his/her messages. Then you restart your phone and voila - 10 messages arrive all at once!

Four, I can't send SMS. "Unable to send," it would say. Again, restart the phone (forehead creased) and resend.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

It's been more than a week now since I downloaded Google Chrome, the internet search giant's answer to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Call me stupid but I always thought Firefox was Google's. Well, this moron just learned that it was just funded (partly) by Google, but is not Google's.

Back to Chrome, they say it's supposed to be better, faster, and much simpler to use. Better, I really don't know. I mean, there's much less clutter, which is characteristic of Google, but I can't really give an expert opinion.

The layout, of course, is different. Tabs are at the topmost - no more title bar - and a nifty little plus sign lets you add a new tab with just one click. And when you do, screenshots of your most-visited sites are displayed (kinda like Mac, they say).

On the second row are the Back and Forward buttons, along with one to reload your current page, another for bookmarking, the address bar, a drop-down button to contol you current page, and another one for customizing Chrome. I was looking for a History button but being Google, I quickly realized that they incorporated it to the Back and Forward buttons. Your browsing history appears when you hold down these buttons. You can also view your full history, which is as detailed as it can get - down to date and time. Deletion can be done by date.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

MBK has been finding joy lately in scoring vintage finds online. And she surprised me last week with something for me. A little birthday present, she says. Actually, it's one of several presents so far. My birthday's not due 'till next week and the surprises just keep on coming. Oh how I love her. I'm one lucky guy.

Anyway, this is what she bought me from eBay:

Two tank tops with that unmistakable style from the '70s! See the photo prints, the colored piping - they're so '70s! They fit so snugly and I wonder, were people back then that thin? But I love 'em. In fact, the fabric is very much different from those of today and is arguably of better quality.

But what's really funny about them is this:

Yes, the tag says Gayfit! From what MBK read on the item description, they're "dead stocks," never sold, never worn. But even if they were made decades ago, I could still probably say that they're new.

Another week at the box office and my favorite film The Dark Knight pushes past Phantom Menace, The Two Towers, and Order of the Phoenix to land at no. 6 in the global box office charts with $949.2 million.

Well, since it's still showing in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, it could overtake Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (cume: $961M) by next week. I'm being conservative here so let's just see if it could beat the first Harry Potter movie (cume: $976.5M).

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Dark Knight has breached the $500-million mark at the U.S. box office - and the fastest at that! I don't know why this excites me.

It has also hauled in $417M outside the U.S., bringing it's global box office total to $921.8M. That's enough to catapult it to 9th place at the charts, six spots up from last week's no. 15. At the rate it's going, Dark Knight could easily overtake Phantom Menace and LOTR: The Two Towers by next week. And it could probably rest at no. 5 or 6 when its run is due.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

For a few weeks now, we've been feeding a black-and-white stray cat we call Guilty. MBK and I call him that way 'cause whenever we catch him straying inside our fence, he gives us that "guilty" look like that of someone caught in the act of doing something mischievous, then quickly runs away. It has always been that way for more than two years now.

We came home one afternoon and the same familiar scene played except that he didn't flee as fast as he usually did. Maybe it helped that we kept on coaxing him to come near. And surprise, surprise - he meowed at us and started approaching us cautiously! Then we fed him and he kept on coming back ever since.

Unlike our own cat, Kwittie Boy, Guilty was extremely affectionate. (But mind you, petting him gives me that icky feeling, so I never did again after once.) He also is a little aggressive in terms of trying to get inside our house. But of course, we never let him in for fear that he might infect our own cat with something Kwittie Boy has not developed an immunity from.

We came home last night and heard our own Kwittie Boy giving that familiar soft meow as I was unlocking the door. MBK was meowing in return and Guilty quickly appeared as I opened the door. Everything happened so fast. He came right inside the house and met Kwittie Boy face to face. And then the unthinkable happened.

Friday, August 29, 2008

I was browsing through my photos when I came across those from the 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta held last February. After a couple of yearly failed attempts to make it there (the venue has always been Clark Field in Pampanga), I finally got the chance to experience it.

But lo and behold, I never got to see a single balloon in flight! The wind was beating hard that day which made it impossible to inflate any balloon. Mind you, they did try repeatedly to launch some balloons but to no avail. I don't know but I just laughed at my experience when normally I would be pissed off and cursing.

Here are some of those pictures I took - deformed hot air balloons and all.

We'll see if there'll be balloons in flight on the next festival. That's gonna be in about five months time.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

With all the press on Kara DioGuardi joining American Idol Season 8 as judge (Yes, never heard of her either; she's reportedly a Grammy-nominated songwriter or something), I Googled Season 7 winner David Cook to check on what's happening with him lately and stumbled upon a blog by Chris Sligh, a Season 6 hopeful telling a story on how a really nice guy DC is.Fellow AI alum Luke Menard, who's stricken with cancer, recently held a fund-raising concert to help pay for his medical bills. DC sent a signed guitar to be sold at an auction.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

So the "American Superfish" succeeded in his quest for eight Olympic golds in Beijing. Never mind that his 7th almost slipped away. I really thought he didn't win that one until I saw it flashed on TV that he got it. And I was laughing my heart out during the slow-mo replays. I just thought that his long arms (He acknowledged this in Vogue's April 2008 issue) saved him.

Box office estimates for the Aug. 22-24 weekend showed that The Dark Knight had already grossed $489 million in the U.S. alone. For two weeks now it has already overtaken Star Wars as the second highest-grossing movie of all time (in the States, that is). It's still a long shot, though, from Titanic's $600 million.
I wasn't expecting Dark Knight to earn that much, judging from the performance of its predecessor Batman Begins. So, great! But personally, I don't think it could make another $100 million to dislodge Titanic from the top spot. But if it does, well great again! I'll be more than happy 'cause I just love the movie!

Monday, August 25, 2008

So the Beijing Olympics are now over. All the hoopla, the controversies - the pollution, China's policy on Tibet, et al. - that lead to 08.08.08 have finally been put to rest.
China did an excellent job, I must say. The former "sleeping giant" put all the stops to ensure that its coming-out party is a resounding success. No potholes were in sight, trees were planted, cars were off the streets, eye-popping venues were constructed, and the people were heavily oriented on English, hospitality, and more. It even had to pre-record the fireworks at the opening ceremonies just to make sure there won't be any glitches during the live broadcast. More so, it had to commission a ghost singer to make up for that cute kid's lack of vocal prowess. And I thought only designer goods were being bootlegged in China.

Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class – I really had to quickly get that during the few seconds in the film when what WALL-E stands for was shown.

I find Pixar’s latest offering depressing, though. In fact it’s upsetting. While I was all starry-eyed following cute little WALL-E as he went about his daily routine, a few minutes into the film and I forgot about him and saw what was around.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

I am half-white.
My dad's Danish and my mom's Filipino. I was born, raised, and still living in the Philippines. And I've never been to Denmark. In fact, I've never seen my father since I was like, seven. But we had one snail mail exchange back in '94. I don't know how he is now but I sure know he's still in Denmark.
Yeah, I miss him. And I sure want to see him sometime, get to visit him in Denmark perhaps and learn a little more about that other half of my lineage - you know, the white part of me.
But I don't know when that will be. For now at least.

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About Me

I am half-white. Half-Caucasian, if you may.
My dad's Danish and my mom's Filipino. I was born, raised, and am still living in the Philippines. And ironically - even pathetically - I've never been to Denmark.
(Disclosure: I do accept sponsored posts occasionally.)
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